Bellabeat is a Y Combinator startup bringing the quantified self movement to pregnancy. It has built a “home monitoring system,” consisting of a $129 device that connects to a smartphone app women can use to track and share their unborn baby’s heartbeat and various other “activities.” The company is now bringing its products to the U.S. market.

“Modern parents are active on social and mobile networks, and new needs and trends of analyzing and sharing the data with the loved ones have appeared,” cofounder Sandro Mur told VentureBeat. “We want to offer them an engaging, social, and comfortable at-home experience in pregnancy and enable them to track, observe, and share their experience.”

Through Bellabeat’s device, women can hear, record, and share their baby’s heartbeat; monitor their baby’s movement and development; track and analyze their pregnancy weight gain; organize prenatal care, and calculate relevant dates throughout the pregnancy.

The startup also built a social platform called Bellabeat Global that lets pregnant women interact, share experiences and information, and create an “organized and social pregnancy diary.” All this uploaded data will be compiled into data visualizations and infographics.

Bellabeat cofounder Urska Srsen’s mother (Dr. Tanja Premru-Srsen) is a OB/GYN specialist. She was working with Mur to develop a home pregnancy monitoring system for clinics, and in testing the product, the two realized how “sterile” the pre-natal care can be.

Urska Srsen and Mur saw the need to create a better experience. The rise of mobile phones, the quantified self-movement, the wealth of informational resources on the Internet, and advancements in health tech have opened up a glimmering array of opportunities for at-home healthcare.

“I worked in health care for a decade, but pregnancy was the first time I dealt with the health care system as a patient,” she said. “It opened my eyes to gaps in terms of resources available and risks.”

Of all these pregnancy apps, though, Bellabeat is the only one with a device to collect data on heartbeats and movements.

“Right now there are other hardware products for listening to your baby’s heartbeat that provide information only locally and don’t offer any context of the data received or sharing the data with other people. There are also other simple pregnancy apps that offer general information and don’t provide much information specifically related to your pregnancy,” Mur said. “We’re connecting it all into one connected system and providing much more focus on individual pregnancy. We give moms-to-be a tool for self tracking and help them with understanding the data they’re collecting.”

The goal is to cut down on the time women have to spend in clinical environments and empower them to manage their health from home. This cuts down on cost and anxiety levels as well.

Bellabeat was first founded as Babywatch. It is based in Mountain View, Calif., with an office in Zagreb, Croatia.

]]>0Bellabeat’s device lets women track and analyze their pregnancy from homeSmile Family lets you share all the baby photos you want (without bugging the rest of us)http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/21/smile-family-lets-you-share-all-the-baby-photos-you-want-without-bugging-the-rest-of-us/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/21/smile-family-lets-you-share-all-the-baby-photos-you-want-without-bugging-the-rest-of-us/#commentsTue, 21 Jan 2014 18:10:23 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=885529Having kids is a crazy thing to do. Sure they can be cute and carry on your family's legacy, but along with all that comes a whole lot of questions, challenges, and work.
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Having kids is a crazy thing to do. Sure they can be cute and carry on your family’s legacy, but along with all that comes a whole lot of questions, challenges, and work.

Smile Family is developer of mobile apps for families. It has raised $1.5 million and just released its first Android app “Smile Mom” – a mobile social network where moms can post “daily episodes” of raising their child, share and organize photos, connect with moms nearby, and exchange parenting tips.

“Moms with kids between age one and seven is roughly 10% of the population, and they prefer using smartphones since they are busy and tired after a long day,” CEO John Kim told VentureBeat. “Moms deserve better tools to become better informed, well-connected, and most of all, be happier every day.”

Smile Family provides a dedicated outlet for this to happen. If it means fewer baby photos on my Facebook feed, I’m all for it.

In addition to sharing photos, moms (and presumably any parent) can buy and sell used baby items, group chat with mom circles, and find moms with matching interests, like those with kids at the same school or that have the same allergy.

Now that everyone and their grandma is on Facebook, we’re seeing a flood of smaller, more narrow social networks emerging to focus on one area.

Path is a private social network for your closest friends, Nextdoor is a social network for your neighborhood, Doximity is a social network for doctors, Couple is a “relationship app for two,” and so on.

Smile Family is by no means the first to realize that parents want and need their own social network. Being a parent is tough, and a supportive community helps. Competitors include Cafe Mom, BabyCenter, MomsLikeMe, Parents Connect, and JustMommies.

The reality of our society is that women play a bigger role in child care. Yes, there are plenty of active dads and admirable co-parenting situations, but in general, moms are the one taking to the Internet to post photos, express their needs, and communicate with other moms going through the same stuff.

Maybe someday in the not-so-distant future, more dads will have stepped up to play a larger role in raising the children and the target audience will be parents of both genders. In the meantime, those dads who do take on an equal share of childcare responsibilities probably won’t want to use tech designed for moms and slathered in pastel pink.

Smile Family is based on Korea, and Kim said it is growing an average of 14% week-over-week, with more than half of the users coming from the U.S. He expects these numbers to go up with the upcoming release of an iOS app.

Before starting Smile Family, Kim founded social gaming startup Paprika Lab, which sold to GREE in 2012. Albatross Investment, Capstone Partners, and Fast Track Asia participated in this round.

]]>0Smile Family lets you share all the baby photos you want (without bugging the rest of us)This sock tells you your baby’s heart rate, sleep position, oxygen levels, and temperaturehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/08/26/this-high-tech-sock-tells-you-your-babys-heart-rate-sleep-position-oxygen-levels-and-temperature/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/26/this-high-tech-sock-tells-you-your-babys-heart-rate-sleep-position-oxygen-levels-and-temperature/#commentsMon, 26 Aug 2013 16:37:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=802810"I'm a dad, I've got 2 kids," project co-founder Jacob Colvin told me this morning. "I had a really close friend who lost their child while we were actually visiting them. We want to be able to provide parents with peace of mind."
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New parents who are wondering how their baby is sleeping, whether he’s cold, or whether she’s still on her back, might be able to rest a little easier at night if the first wearable tech product for babies meets its crowdfunding campaign goals this month.

Or, they might be nervously checking their baby’s vitals every five minutes.

“I’m a dad, I’ve got 2 kids,” project cofounder Jacob Colvin told me this morning. “They had RSV [a respiratory infection that causes difficulty in breathing], and I had a really close friend who lost their child while we were actually visiting them. We want to be able to provide parents with peace of mind.”

I have three children, and that nagging question — is our baby OK? — is indeed one that forces parents to get up and go check on their infants, particularly when they’re a few months old and starting to sleep in their own rooms.

The expandable sock includes a four-sensors pulse oximeter, which allows the device to measure skin temperature and heart rate simply via a built-in light. It’s similar to but more advanced than the typical pulse rate device you might put your finger into in a doctor’s office, with two light sources and two photo diodes to ensure good readings even with different-sized or growing infants.

An accelerometer keeps track of a baby’s movements, providing insight into sleep quality and an alarm if your child rolls onto his stomach, a thermometer provides temperature, and the sock transmits all the data to your smartphone or your computer, giving you a customizable dashboard into your baby’s current health status.

Owlet isn’t crowdfunding via Kickstarter, and there’s a good reason for that.

“Kickstarter doesn’t allow baby products, home health care products, or medical products,” Colvin told me. “And we’d like to be able to have a little more control over our campaign.”

Another difference compared to many hardware crowdfunding campaigns is a short timeline to deliver the product. Owlet has already built multiple functioning prototypes of the baby monitor, Colvin told me, because babies, after all, can’t be put on hold. Expecting parents will need their devices in just a few months, not half a year, and Owlet is ready to fulfill that, he said.

Eventually, it will be certified as a medical device as well.

“This device does not require FDA clearance, but we have another version that does,” Colvin told me. “It has an alarm system built into it [that alerts parents if their] child’s oxygen levels drop.”

That alarm requires FDA approval, apparently, and part of the crowdfunding proceeds will be put to that notoriously lengthy and complicated process. The company is looking for $100,000 in funding, and has already raised $19,650 of that on the first day of its campaign.

]]>0This sock tells you your baby’s heart rate, sleep position, oxygen levels, and temperatureWindeln brings home the gold (in baby diapers)http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/26/windeln-brings-home-the-gold-in-baby-diapers/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/26/windeln-brings-home-the-gold-in-baby-diapers/#commentsTue, 26 Feb 2013 16:51:28 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=628496Windeln, Diapers.com for the German speaking world, raises $19.6 million to grow to into its toddler years.
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Windeln.de is a German online retailer for baby products, and it has tucked away $19.6 million (€15 million). In 2012, the company developed faster than a healthy toddler, and this financing will support continued growth.

Known as the Diapers.com of the German-speaking world, Windeln’s inventory includes includes more than 20,000 products from 300 companies, including diapers, baby good, toiletries, and pacifiers. Parents can easily place orders for their baby needs online and have them delivered to their door. Prices are lower than in many physical retailers, and parents of newborns appreciate the convenience of shopping from home.

Windeln had a successful year in 2012. According to a statement, it grew by more than 300 percent and now has a revenue run rate of $65. 34 million (€ 50 million). Furthermore, almost 70 percent of orders originate from existing customers. These are enticing numbers for investors. As such, existing investor DN Capital and new investor MCI led this funding round, with participation from Acton Capital Partners and 360 Capital. Each of these firms have European offices and will support Windeln’s expansion into new European markets.

The idea for Windeln was born when founder Constantine Urban and his wife, Victoria, were vacationing with their children on the North Sea in 2009. As young parents, they wished they didn’t have to lug large boxes of diapers to-and-fro — or panic when they ran out of the one kind of baby food their child liked. Urban founded Windeln in Munich in 2010.

Babies aside, Germany is one of the hottest markets for startups in Europe. Venture capital firms and incubator programs are setting up shop in Berlin, and the thriving cultural landscape presents a desirable environment for young, hungry entrepreneurs.

]]>0Windeln brings home the gold (in baby diapers)Mobile Baby gets babies online before birthhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/02/18/mobile-baby-ultrasound-share/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/18/mobile-baby-ultrasound-share/#commentsFri, 18 Feb 2011 16:37:12 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=243766Gaming execs: Join 180 select leaders from King, Glu, Rovio, Unity, Facebook, and more to plan your path to global domination in 2015. GamesBeat Summit is invite-only -- apply here. Ticket prices increase on April 3rd! Great Connection, which puts medical scans like X-rays and ultrasounds into the cloud, just announced that its Mobile Baby service will be used in a […]
]]>Gaming execs:Join 180 select leaders from King, Glu, Rovio, Unity, Facebook, and more to plan your path to global domination in 2015. GamesBeat Summit is invite-only -- apply here. Ticket prices increase on April 3rd!

Great Connection, which puts medical scans like X-rays and ultrasounds into the cloud, just announced that its Mobile Baby service will be used in a pilot project in Egypt to perform remote diagnostics on pregnant women. Great Connection already has deployments in maternity clinics in Saudi Arabia and Sweden.

Most pregnancy clinics currently use CDs or other physical media to store and share images. They also need to archive images for up to 10 years, which can be very costly. Great Connection’s Mobile Baby cloud service can be used to share scans with expectant mothers (potentially an important source of revenue for clinics), with doctors and also to archive the data.

Ultrasound and X-ray machines use proprietary medical image formats and protocols that are understood by Great Connection’s software. The scanning machine’s operator initiates the image or video transfer directly from the ultrasound machine to a cloud server. During transfer, sensitive data like social security numbers are removed from the content and it is encrypted and authenticated. From the cloud server the images can be shared with doctors or mothers via email or social networks. Images can also be sent to mobile phones using MMS or SMS.

Many maternity clinics do not have a doctor permanently onsite. Midwives are not allowed to make a diagnosis when they spot a problem. The Mobile Baby service allows images to be shared quickly with doctors, who can make a remote diagnosis.

Remote diagnosis is even more important in developing countries. Egypt has only one doctor for 1,900 people as opposed to one physician for every 400 people in a country like the U.S. The ratio is much higher in many countries in Asia and Africa. Mobile Baby is offered in Egypt by Mobinil, the country’s leading mobile operator, and is initially being launched in Cairo with plans to expand to clinics and hospitals across other parts of the country, including rural regions, which have much lower levels of access to medical services.

The service is being introduced with support from Qualcomm, which already offers a diverse range of mobile health services. Mobinil’s parent company is Orascom Telecom which operates GSM networks in markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia with a total population of 506 million.

Mobile ultrasound can also be used to scan at an accident site to determine, for example, whether a patient has internal bleeding and should receive a transfusion immediately.

Great Connection was founded in Sweden in 2007 but is now based in San Diego.